I Want My BSG

One week down and one week to go in the enforced Battlestar Galactica fast and I’m trying hard to make it. I couldn’t miss my Friday night Adama-and-the-gang fix, however. I re-watched the previous week’s FANTASTIC episode, “Guess What’s Coming To Dinner,” just to stave off the Adama cravings. So much for really fasting.

I just HAD to see the scene again where President Laura Roslin gives her chief aide, Tory Foster, the verbal bitch-slap of a lifetime with a single, disdain-oozing statement:

“I don’t care if you have to spend all night on your knees praying or just on your knees. I want a name.”

DAYUM! The president of the 12 colonies does not mince words and the look on Foster’s face when Roslin outs her is priceless (see it here). She really underestimated Roslin — why people still do this after everything that’s happened, I will never know — and it’s clear she never truly considered the price she’d pay for breaching Roslin’s trust, which is just plain stupid. What did Foster think Roslin was going to do when she found out Foster was doing the horizontal mambo with Baltar, Roslin’s nemesis? And seriously, did Foster think she was going to be able to keep it a secret? They’re aboard Galactica for frak’s sake, and the crew on that ship is loyal to Adama, who is clearly Roslin’s confidante and vice-versa. Geez. For a Cylon, Tory’s a moron.

Speaking of morons, it looks as if Captain Moron himself, er, I mean, the former Captain Apollo, appears to be shaping up … maybe. He started out so confrontational with Roslin early in the episode that I was afraid he was permanently securing his residence in Roslin’s metaphorical doghouse, but he seemed to exercise a bit more sense as the episode proceeded. I can’t believe he attempted to “school” her on the importance of the “welfare of the fleet” … self-righteous jerk. I loved her rejoinder, however:

“Excuse me. As long as I am in this office, the welfare of this fleet is not something you need to worry about.”

That’s not a statement made from bluster or pride, it’s a fact, which can be backed up by simply looking at the history of her tenure in power. From the beginning, she has put the welfare of the fleet first. It is her primary goal and so important to her that she actually attempted to steal the results of a democratic election because she knew it was in the fleet’s best interest. It wasn’t pride or a power play, but a sincere desire to do what was best for the remainder of humanity and to save the people from the consequences of their misguided electoral choice. And she was right, even though what she wanted to do was wrong legally and morally. There’s the double-edge sword of philosophy again.

What gets me is that Lee Adama seems to have forgotten who Roslin is, which is odd considering he was the first person in the military she bonded with and how much he sided with her early on, even over his father. They really went through a lot together but ever since he tossed her to the wolves during Gaius Baltar’s trial and found himself on the outside of the inner circle of power — which is Roslin, Admiral Adama and his top officers — it’s like he’s forgotten everything he knows about her, not to mention his father.

Under the influence of Romo Lampkin, Baltar’s attorney, Lee was bad enough, but it became much worse when Vice President Tom Zarek, a man who always has an agenda, began wheedling him. Since then, Lee’s been only too happy to believe the worst of her. And why? Because Zarek insinuates there’s something nefarious going on in her decisions and actions? Because Zarek suggests that Adama and Roslin are up to no good because they don’t share what goes into making every decision with a bunch of whining ingrates who thought self-serving Baltar was a better choice to lead them? Have I missed something? When did Zarek, a former terrorist, become Mr. Credibility? For frak’s sake, he plotted to kill Lee and his father both on Kobol!

The real clincher is, that Roslin is the same person she’s been all along. Yes, she’s grown more confident in wielding the power of her position. Yes, circumstances and experience have taught her to make difficult decisions quicker and have honed her ability to be ruthless, when necessary, to a sharp edge. But she, as a person, has not changed fundamentally. She is still Laura Roslin, a former school teacher savvy about politics who came to presidential power during the most trying of times as a result of what she herself has called a “mathematical absurdity.”

Roslin, despite all that she’s been through, remains a thoughtful, reasonable and compassionate woman who is an uncannily accurate judge of character. She has a generous spirit and a will of iron, and possesses a singular focus and desire to do what’s best for the people under her care. And she’s doing them all a great service, whether they know it or not and in spite of their perpetual bitching and moaning. She is ready, prophesied even, to die in her service to them, something that I think no one save herself and Bill Adama has truly considered, and still she does not flinch from the responsibility or burdens of her position. She stands resolute, accepting of what the scriptures have decreed as her fate, fighting the terminal breast cancer ravaging her body only so that she can do what must be done. Why Lee Adama can’t see this is beyond me.

At the very least though, for now, Lee seems to have thankfully ceased being so adversarial with her. The scene where he visits her in Galactica’s sickbay and urges her to talk to the Quorum about her decision to form an alliance with a faction of Cylon rebels is telling. I think, for the first time, he realized the burden she bears, that her job is not solely about wielding power and making decisions, but standing as a beacon of hope for a people who have none without her and fastidiously keeping them united even as their petty concerns and posturing threaten to tear them apart. As much as they might chafe at times from the way she does things, much as children chafe from a mother’s strictures, they know deep down, whether they are aware of it and will admit or not, that she is their strength and without her they are little more than lost, directionless sheep in a wilderness of wolves. And I’m not just talking about the Cylons.

And that’s what makes the ending of “Guess What’s Coming To Dinner?” so fantastically terrifying. Roslin has been whisked away aboard the damaged Cylon baseship, leaving the fleet without it’s shepherd … and it appears that Adama is going to follow with the Galactica. Motherless and fatherless, it will be interesting to see how the fleet responds, particularly Tom Zarek, Lee Adama and the remainder of the quorum. Will they rise to the occasion and be the leaders they’re supposed to be? Or will infighting be the order of the day? Will they finally realize how much their survival to date has been rooted in the unified strength and choices of Roslin and Adama, the two people they perpetually try to tear down? I wouldn’t count on it — human nature is such a bitch — but one can always hope.

It’s going to be an interesting episode this coming Friday. I am ready for it. More than ready, actually. I want to know what’s going to happen between Tigh and Adama. I want to know what the fallout is from Sharon Valerie gunning down the Cylon rebel leader Natalie. I want to know what happens with Roslin and the contingent of Galactica’s crew that is aboard the baseship. I am dying to know what the hybrid will tell Roslin. I want to know who/what Starbuck is/has become and what she will do next. I want to know what’s with Hera’s fascination with the Sixes, most notably Caprica Six — that “bye-bye” scene was creepy beyond words. And, what is the significance of Roslin taking Adama’s copy of Searider Falcon with her?

There are so many things left still to play out in Battlestar Galactica, and I wait with bated breath and a not so small amount of frustration until the next airing. So bring it on, Ron Moore and the writing gang. Let’s get the show on the road and the Galactica’s guns warmed up. I’m ready and, I think it’s safe to say, so are the rest of the show’s fans.

So say we all.

Oh, and just in case you didn’t know…

A word of warning to my fellow BSG fans, brace yourselves for a long mid-season hiatus of the show. Apparently we’re only going to see three more episodes before they take a break and resume airing sometime late this year or in early 2009.

Personally, I HATE this and I seriously question the wisdom of it, considering the momentum of the story and the fact this is the final season — and let’s not forget what that has done to ratings in the past for BSG, as well as the serialized drama LOST. I would much rather watch the final season through and not wait for another five months or more to see the end. It’s going to be agonizing, and wholly unnecessary to boot.

I honestly wait for the day that networks quit making decisions that serve only to frustrate faithful fans. They have an utterly captivated audience right now and they’re going to risk it for what? If it’s over advertising dollars, I’m going to laugh my considerable behind off.

It seems to me that…

a captivated audience watching a show on a thrill-packed roller coaster ride to the end = HUGE advertising revenue opportunities,

whereas…

making a captivated audience take a break from the ride and hope they come back to finish it later = a bigger gamble for potential advertisers,

… especially when you consider the attention span of the average TV viewer, even faithful ones, and the other, copious entertainment options vying for their loyalty.

Seriously, what if the amusement park had a roller coaster that went halfway through, stopped before the biggest thrills, made everyone get off the ride and told them to come back later? How many people do you think would come back to ride that coaster? Not many, I’ll bet.

Is the wait because it’s summer and the network thinks people are never going to be home? Geez, look at economy and the price of gas these days. Trust me, a lot of people will be staying home, more than probably ever before. Don’t you think they’d appreciate a GREAT television show to watch (or record – have people forgotten we can do that now?) on Friday nights? I know I would.

But instead, it looks like we’re in for a long, ridiculous wait to finish a journey that began four years ago, one that I’ve enjoyed immensely. Truly, this is the sci-fi show I’ve waited for all my life and I am woefully unhappy to have this final chapter unceremoniously split for reasons I can’t fathom. I doubt seriously I’m alone in this either. We need an Admiral Adama to rally the troops, aka us fans, and urge the powers that be to reconsider the break in airing. Two weeks is bad enough, but months … frak that.

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